Just got my boat...

Well, I'm quite excited... I just got my cat! I haven't sailed beach cats in quite a long time, and a nice boat at a great price presented itself and I made the leap to get it. I'm really keen to go out and join the beach cat ranks again after (too) many years in big trimarans.

I found the cat on the internet and bought it sight unseen from a different country. Took bit of courage on my part, as I am the type of person who always has to see, inspect, kick the tyres, etc., etc.

I must say that the people I dealt with, Jim Boyer and Helen Sherrock at Boyer Fibrecraft/AHPC were both extremely helpful and more than patient in helping me through the purchase and export procedure. The boat I am uncrating (a Mk5 proto) is incredible to behold! It is more than advertised and I definitely am glad I dealt with them. Thanks also to Cam Owens from Australia who send me some background info on the A Class cats and who gave me the courage to buy the boat as he'd raced against it and knew it to be just as Jim Boyer described it. For now it is the lone A here, but I'm hoping to convert a few others to this brand of madness and get a small fleet going. Who knows, there may be a few skippers in the local 2-man boat fleets who may be tempted to leave their crews ashore after one too many whingeing incidents... 😉

Now, to wait for the typhoon to pass (I'm in the Philippines) and then rig it up and go sailing...

Anyone know of a good A-tuning website? I'm sure I could use the info so that I cut down on my queries to Jim and Greg 😉 I've

bothered

them enough by asking so much about the cat when I was buying it...

Gee, I am resisting all temptation to bolt the hulls and beams together and just look at it in the yard for a few days.

I'm sure that those of you who've waited for a long time to get the boat/s of your dreams can empathize.

Cheers, all!

--little pat

PS: Jim & Greg, I know you come to this site occasionally; the boat's here, no damage, excellent crating job... etc., etc. I'll e-mail you guys as soon as my feet return to earth. 😉